Monday, October 30, 2006

New Home

I still need to transfer my links and tweak the template, but no new posts will be placed here on blogspot. Old spaazlicious posts are over there, although I couldn't transfer the comments, so I look like an unlovéd loser. :)

I hope to see you there.

I don't know if I can place one of those redirect thingies that go ahead and change it automatically in your rss feeder--if anyone knows that I can and how, please holla at your girl here.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

This is the End, well pretty much. Mostly anyway. I think.

I was disappointed with it because I was a dumb@ss and didn't listen to whoever it was (I think it was Jessimuhka, but I've gone back through my comments and couldn't find exactly) who said to make everything longer. Being such a schmartypantz I looked at the schematic and measured myself and said, "nah, that'll be fine."

But perhaps the schematic included the length of the hems because when I sewed it all together and tried it on pre-hem stitching, the length WAS perfect, WITH the hems out. When I sewed the hems up, it was about two inches too short. D'oh.

The lack of the length in the body wasn't crucial, it does hit at a fairly flattering spot, which I think can be tricky in something so slumptastic as a sweatshirt, but I cannot stand to have my knobby wristbones showing under a sweater sleeve gap, it looks freakish. Unlike our friend the male platypus, my offensive poisonous spines are in my forelegs and I prefer to keep them covered when I'm cold.

I contemplated cutting the sleeves around the elbow, knitting the extra length and then grafting it back. But the prospect of dealing with the seam...I wussed out. I ended up just blocking the crap out of it.

Which makes the arms appear thinner, and as I wear it and my body kind of humidifies it and I move around the sleeves sneak back up...but it is still a comfortable compromise I can live with. Although you'll see a blocked those bad boys out unevenly. Oops.'Scuse me while I bust a move.

This here's a tale for all the fellasTry to do what those ladies tell usGet shot down cause you're overzealousPlay hard to get an' females get jealous

A chick walks by you wish you could sex herBut you're standin on the wall like you was Poindexter

Says she wanna dance cus she likes the grooveSo come on fatso and just bust a move

If you want it baby you've got it...If you want it baby you've got it...Just bust a move!

You're on a mission and you're wishin'someone could cure your lonely conditionYou're lookin for love in all the wrong places

No fine girls just ugly faces

My gauge changed between swatching and actual knitting, from the requisite 4.5 sts/in to 5 sts/in, which isn't huge, but did snug it in a bit. The sleeves might have fit better I suppose had I had that extra couple of stitches at the chest and shoulders. My row gauge was still right on so I didn't fuss about it.

I still have 204 yards/186.5 meters (3.2 oz/90.7 grams) left of the 1276 yards/1166.8 meters I spun up for the project. My Rogue is light and skooshy and warm and weighs 14.8 oz/419.5 grams. Who says that knit sweatshirts have to be heavy?It is possible to get light lofty yarn from top!The End of the Spaazlicious Road?

I must say, I got a little distracted and didn't document it very well. ;)

I'm not going to stop blogging, I like it. Nick likes it. My family likes it. But I think I'm going to move it over to my poor abandoned wordpress shop blog. I never really gave that thing a chance, and so much of what I talk about here I wanted to talk about there, but didn't want to double post. And there was some stuff here I wasn't sure I wanted to be associated with over there--flabgina anyone? But now that I've finished completed the goal of this blog, I'm ready to move on over. Well, not just yet. The shop blog is bare and blah and has no links, it definitely needs to be spiffed up first. I just wasn't sure how much I was going to take over there with me from Spaazlicious.

I chose this name on a whim. Did some searches and at that time no one had it, or any similar play on the Spaaz theme in its various spellings, so I signed up for blogger and slowly learned some html and other requisite bloggy skills. I have grown attached to it, but it is potentially offensive. Of course everything is potentially offensive, but I'm not sure if it's business appropriate, even in the casual world of this "hobby market." So after I move, should I go back to Tortuga? I can't just be Wendy--I'd feel like I was pretending to be one of the real Wendys, as silly as that sounds. Maybe I should take the moniker Mary-Kay has bestowed upon me, WendySpin. I think I'm also called Wendy Spaaz or Spaaz Wendy a few places.

Maybe I should just be Wendy Black and leave the alter ego identities to the superheroes.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Once upon a time...

I was a blogger.

Just haven't been feeling it lately.

I think part of it is missing Pomona so much. How could I not miss this face?

A lot of you nice folks out there leave comments about how you think you could never foster dogs because you'd want to keep them all, but for almost every foster dog we've had, I've been able to feel a different, better fitting family for them.

Snowball wasn't one of them. He had some weird quirks that would have had him bouncing from home to home, but we loved him, we trusted him, we felt the purity of his joy in being alive. And he was happy here. Renting this relatively perfect (but dumpy little) place here in La Mesa means that we can't officially adopt another dog since we are limited to two. We get away with fostering because technically, they're temporary. We make sure our three dogs don't bark and bug the neighbors, and they don't call the city for enforcement. Happy neighborhood status quo.

We "failed" fostering with Snowball because he was so special, so unique, so perfectly imperfect for us; he fit right in. We were going to make his adoption official when we moved up north (still waiting on a transfer) but the cancer proved an impetus to make it official earlier. With the bone cancer and the specter of amputation, it looked like we might need to move from our second story home anyway. But he fell in the yard, we faced facts, looked at his pain and couldn't do it. He was a good boy and we miss him so much. That's never going to stop, just ease over time.

Pomona may have started out "boring," but once we discovered the key to her heart was in "walkies" she opened up and we could see and feel how unique and wonderful she is. When she was on the beach or in an open field she radiated joy, that pure happiness and love that Snowball used to glow with and it was almost like having him back--but a different set of quirks. ;)

I should have been honest with myself about how I felt. I wanted to keep her. But I couldn't shake my foster mentality and took her to the adoption appointment anyway, and she was of course adopted, being the best f&cking dog in the world that she is. And while I didn't want to leave her, it was too late. I'd messed up. There's no "backsies" on foster dogs unless the owners bounce them back out (which happens when things aren't working out, which would mean Pomona was not happy, which I do not want) and there was nothing to be done. I was stupid, I f&cked up. Me missing her, wanting to keep her, is just selfish. Her new Mommy is a good one, she would be a great mommy for any of the shy dogs we have at the kennel(and who Pomona beat hands down because of her beauty, winning personality, and stellarly stinky flatulence, I tell you, she was a Spaaz family dog through and through) and she'll be a good mommy to Pomona.

But it was kind of like losing the 'ball all over again, and kind of knocked the emotional wind out of me. And you know what an emotional windbag I am, right?

Anyway, we needed more room in the kennel that day so I brought home another foster dog, Snuggle:

He is a totally normal spaaz, turning two years old this month. He is boisterous and affectionate no matter where he is--although he is a greyhound, so he sleeps about twenty hours a day,

the boisterous part comes in the three minutes or so spent in a complicated greeting dance when we come home. Or playing with toys, he gives 'em hell.

He is a bit unique in two ways however:

He has a mohawk fur pattern.

And he has an outtie:

Which I have never seen on a dog. He's a good boy, we figure he'll be adopted next weekend.

Next post, coming soon:

Explication of my petty petrol-related peevishness

Actual knitting content--I've finished the Rogue and was really dissappointed. I'll figure out how to use my fancy schmancy Photoshop CS2 to highlight the part of the pink Sherwood that's f'ed up, have an updated photo. Maybe I'll gather up the UFOs I have and organise a finishing spree. Or ripping spree, we'll see.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Eek!

In case you've clicked over from Wendy's, I apologise for my pathetic tantrum in the post below. I'll post explanations later, but please know I'm not really a ranter. At least, not here. Anyway, if you were curious about how much yarn I actually used for my bicolor cardi, here it is:

85 grams of the contrast color--although I have not knit the collar yet, so I may yet have that maddening experience of breaking into a 100 gram skein for a yard or so of extra yarn. Given how much I knit with the other grams though, I think I won't.

Anyway, so call it 100 grams used of the "required" 200 grams called for in the pattern. If I use more, I will amend this post. This may prove the impetus to actually finish this.

Of the 600 grams "required" for the main color I used 343 grams.

I used the yarn called for in the pattern, Louet Gems Opal in Teal and Fern. The linked page is a page from the special order section of my shop, if you scroll down you can see the prices and put up amounts. You can see that this is a not inexpensive yarn (and I sell everything below the suggested retail price) so I think it's important to mention the huge gap in my actual usage, so people can maybe their iffy buffer amounts in the 50 gram put up, instead of the 100 gram skein put up, from their local Louet dealer. That way it won't hurt so much if you have to break into a new skein for a little bit.

Of course, everyone knits differently and has different risk-of-running-out comfort thresholds. And I don't mind the extra skeins since I really enjoyed working with the yarn and being superwash merino it's great for socks and baby stuff. It will be used, eventually. Probably sooner rather than later.

But for those who are afraid of massive oddball stash, it's a thought to think on.

Here's a horrendous photo of the pieces laid out. It pretty much still looks like that, just crammed into a knitting basket.

I'm with the majority of posters in Wendy's comments, I would of course rather end up with too much than too little, so it's okay with me that padding appears to be standard practice. I would like to see the actual knit weight of the garment pictured though, as unrealistic as that is. I always buy extra yarn. I hate running out of yarn. So the persistent extra is really just in the irksome and odd category.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pathetic

You take your foster dog to an adoption appointment and try to talk up any other dog but the one you brought, your precious girl, even though you know they'll be a good home.

As long as they remember the daily walkies.

You almost post a razzing nasty comment on someone's blog who's bragging about their fancy new hybrid and their supposedly fuel efficient mileage to say something like: "Diesel! B!TCH! Run with more torque, more efficiency; I can run biodiesel and you choke on your fucking fossilfuel dependent smarmy hybrid!" I'm sorry, but does any one else remember when the Prius had something like a topspeed of 70mph, cost $30,000, and was built out of an ECHO!?! Terrible crash test rating, and who names a car after a DIMINISHED REPRODUCTION?! We waited 18 months for our jetta wagon with a TDI engine, and I don't regret it at all. If you want to know more about the TDI, click here.If you want to know more about breaking dependence on fossil fuel, click here. (BTW, I got home from our big bear weekend with over a third of a tank left) If you want to see a little bit of internet empathy in my pissiness, and click on some linky goodness that might get you all frustrated about the better engines on the market in Europe, click here.

You notice a gigantic mistake in your knitting, a mistake which destroys the symmetry of the project, run the stitches back down to fix it, reknit the stitches, realise you only ripped down to just right above the huge many-rowed mistake, run the stitches back down to below the mistake to actually fix it, reknit it...run triumphantly to the blog to post the pic of the mistake for a whole beliedat! moment and realise...that you'd posted a pic of the huge mistake before. And no one said anything.

What the f_ck is wrong with you people?!? You call yourself knitters!!!!?!!!

Y'all suck. You could have saved me from knitting something like six or so rows!!!

In case you don't know me well enough to know, here's a frickin' emoticon:

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Blogworthy Heights

We went to Big Bear for the weekend (we is Nancy [the organiser], Heidi [the babybaker], Mary-Kay [the mover & shaker], Cristina [the bunmaster], Hilari [ze fickle mistress of ze mojo] and Yoly [the blogless] and me [whoever I am]). Check Nancy, Mary-Kay & esp. Heidi's blogs for piccies; apparently our public story is that we had way too much food and the two cars we packed were very full. No mention of the all weekend orgy, the breast exams, and the giggly topless pillow fights every hour on the half hour. I'm not sure why, since the cabin's cleaning crew has probably found and released the spa boy by now so no point in keeping secrets.

Anyway, needless to say, we had a fun weekend.

I brought three projects.

The Rogue. I'd had a funked up stitch count in the hood section and set it down for a while, but brought it along anyway. I just fudged it, I figured the stockinette stitch amount didn't matter too much, I think I ended up with the right amount, as seaming it I didn't have any puckering, and didn't have to ease too much.

So, I'm done!

Whaddya mean it still needs sleeves?

Anyway,I tried the three needle bind off and didn't like the really obvious seam. So I tried grafting it, and I didn't like the one stitch offset look it seemed to be creating, so I picked it back out and did the three needle bind off again. I'm hoping the dramatic seam look will fade with blocking and yarn blooming.

The entrelac scarf. Which I'm totally bored with now. It's good public knitdioting, but I've become enamored of Sherwood.

The yarn is Classic Elite's pima silk, which is so soft, I love it. It seems a little pilly though.

Pomona has an appointment on Saturday. I'm both hoping they are wonderful and perfect for her, and hoping they are absolutely unsuitable and we get to keep her longer. I love watching her run, her happiness is so infectious, and I am loving how she makes a little bit more progress each day. She's started coming out onto the deck to look at us through the railing when we come home, which is big progress, and the other day she even stayed out long enough to sniff my hand and get pets before shooting back into the bedroom, which felt like huge progress.